excerpt: Formula One champion driver Lewis Hamilton apologised Tuesday evening for posting a video to social media of him celebrating Christmas with his family, in which he tells his young nephew that “Boys don’t wear princess dresses!”.

Seemed like a bit of an overreaction IMO. Looked like family joking around and the kid laughed so could clearly tell Lewis was playing around. If the kid had been distraught over it then I could understand the outrage but as it’s Hamilton’s nephew I’m sure he is in a better place to know how the joke would be taken.

That said I don’t think there’s many people in the world less qualified to criticise a boy for wearing feminine/‘silly’ clothing. Wouldn’t surprise me if the boy was just trying to be like his uncle

well to be fair it was a bit of a dumb comment, especially with the trial by public lynch mob - sorry, opinion - that is so prevalent today. You'd think someone with so much media experience would know better. In can understand why he might want to lay low

I buy his “It was a family joke” story. Who doesn’t give their family members a dig at anything. His problem was that he posted it online. Once he did that, it wasn’t a family thing, it became a world thing.

People need to stop and think about the ramifications before hitting send sometimes. Rugby League players are another breed of humans guilty of this.

Plainly stated, people need to STFU with their nonsense already. He didn’t say anything wrong and companies and sponsors need to sack up and let the MORONICALLY IDIOTIC pink militia whine all they want.

The back lash he got over a very innocent, if slightly misplaced comment, was absurd and petty. As is his apparent flounce off.

In my opinion he shouldn't have apologised for it. That only ever stokes the flames.

Agree with all of this.

He should be allowed to express his opinion. Having said that, he should also be aware - more than most, given his social media history - that anything he says will be subject to intense scrutiny by the permanently offended.

The back lash he got over a very innocent, if slightly misplaced comment, was absurd and petty. As is his apparent flounce off.

In my opinion he shouldn't have apologised for it. That only ever stokes the flames.

Agree with all of this.

He should be allowed to express his opinion. Having said that, he should also be aware - more than most, given his social media history - that anything he says will be subject to intense scrutiny by the permanently offended.

TBF I don't think he was even expressing an opinion. He was just having a joke around with his family. He was hardly offering up his considered analysis on gender politics.

But as you say he should be aware that he is always under scrutiny and be able to brush off these things really.

Plainly stated, people need to STFU with their nonsense already. He didn’t say anything wrong and companies and sponsors need to sack up and let the MORONICALLY IDIOTIC pink militia whine all they want.

He didn’t say anything NO ONE HASN’T ever said.

If you think saying “Boys don’t wear dresses” to millions of people around the world isn’t wrong, you need to realise you’re in the 21st century.

Plainly stated, people need to STFU with their nonsense already. He didn’t say anything wrong and companies and sponsors need to sack up and let the MORONICALLY IDIOTIC pink militia whine all they want.

He didn’t say anything NO ONE HASN’T ever said.

If you think saying “Boys don’t wear dresses” to millions of people around the world isn’t wrong, you need to realise you’re in the 21st century.

Thankfully, that **** doesn’t fly anymore.

Context.

Also boy's don't generally wear dresses. He didn't say the boy couldn't wear a dress or that wearing a dress was a bad thing.

Plainly stated, people need to STFU with their nonsense already. He didn’t say anything wrong and companies and sponsors need to sack up and let the MORONICALLY IDIOTIC pink militia whine all they want.

He didn’t say anything NO ONE HASN’T ever said.

If you think saying “Boys don’t wear dresses” to millions of people around the world isn’t wrong, you need to realise you’re in the 21st century.

Thankfully, that **** doesn’t fly anymore.

Newsflash... it isn’t wrong.

The over sensitivity and powder puffing of society in general around the world is what’s wrong. It has gotten out of control to the point simple LITTLE things like this are blown way out of proportion because too many people have appointed themselves as the social equality police and cry foul for every little thing with reckless abandon, themselves not stopping to realize their attacks do just as much harm and only serve to serve this viral ego tripping machine further.

It really is absurd for something like this to have drawn so much negativity from the Just Jack brigade.

Plainly stated, people need to STFU with their nonsense already. He didn’t say anything wrong and companies and sponsors need to sack up and let the MORONICALLY IDIOTIC pink militia whine all they want.

He didn’t say anything NO ONE HASN’T ever said.

If you think saying “Boys don’t wear dresses” to millions of people around the world isn’t wrong, you need to realise you’re in the 21st century.

Thankfully, that **** doesn’t fly anymore.

Newsflash... it isn’t wrong.

The over sensitivity and powder puffing of society in general around the world is what’s wrong. It has gotten out of control to the point simple LITTLE things like this are blown way out of proportion because too many people have appointed themselves as the social equality police and cry foul for every little thing with reckless abandon, themselves not stopping to realize their attacks do just as much harm and only serve to serve this viral ego tripping machine further.

It really is absurd for something like this to have drawn so much negativity from the Just Jack brigade.

I agree that Hamilton's comment was relatively harmless and that much has been made of nothing here. However, as many have pointed out, Lewis put it all out their when he posted it publically and he shouldn't have been surprised at the public response... especially given his personal experience in the social medias. Why did he post to begin with?

I serious doubt that Lewis' decision will be permanent... about like my many decisions to leave the forum.

Curious question of you.... do you apply the "just jack brigade" title to those opposed to most of donnie's, our president, twitters too?

Look, I totally get that what Lewis said was a harmless dig at a family member, but when it comes to Social Media, you need to stop and think about how things could be interpreted and thing about the Seeds your planting before you share.

Freedom of speech applies, but when it comes to the internet, nothing’s free anymore

Look, I totally get that what Lewis said was a harmless dig at a family member, but when it comes to Social Media, you need to stop and think about how things could be interpreted and thing about the Seeds your planting before you share.

Freedom of speech applies, but when it comes to the internet, nothing’s free anymore

Disagreeing with someone is fine. Stopping them saying it is not. In this case it is not a prejudice or an opinion, it is a fact. It is not the norm for boys to go out in pink princesses dresses, just as it is not the norm to go out with one Wellington and one flipflop. The right or wrong of it does not come into it, it is a fact.

Not normal for who? Try telling the fa'afafine’s of Samoa that it’s not normal for boys to wear dresses. Who are we to dictate what is or isn’t normal? For certain members of the community, those actions are normal. For certain members of the LGBTQ community, that is normal, so for a high profile celebrity to come out and say it isn’t, can be insulting.

It’s not hard to be a little aware of your actions before posting something potentially harmful. I can’t give a good example to compare for you, because I don’t know your background. Maybe I could say it’d be like someone saying it’s not normal to take African American slave music, and convert it into funky electric music.

Curious question of you.... do you apply the "just jack brigade" title to those opposed to most of donnie's, our president, twitters too?

Most of The Orange One's tweets are offensive on a level far beyond anything Hamilton could begin to conceive of.

Oh I agree! I have no issue with Hamilton on this at all other than he would have been better served not going public on it.

I was just responding to the rant against those, apparently, questioning inapproriate posts/tweets... in their view. I agree that donnie's tweets are much more offensive and actually dangerous. Curious if Mercenary's anger/frustrations extend to those questioning donnie too.

The fact of the matter is that all this LGBTQ "agendaism" has gotten WAAAAAY out of hand and most of it is total cow manure. What has allowed these idiotic things to grow as out of control as they have is the fact that gay people finally made it into bigtime positions in all avenues of media and their #1 priority is to brag and boast to the world "WE'RE HERE AND WE'RE QUEER and now that we CAN, we're going to CRAM it down your throat. And I have several gay family members whom I love deeply and dearly and it makes no difference to me that they love and are married to people of their same gender. What my family members and some gay friends I have DON'T DO is make it a point to say LOOK AT ME, I'm Gay, I;m On Fire and as such I demand Attention!!!

The most prime example of this cram it down your throat in the media was Ellen (The initially BRILLIANT Sitcom), not her talk show. Her sitcom was #1 for a couiple of seasons because it was extremely well written and the cast of actors were brilliant at what they do and every episode would make you laugh with the quick, sharp humor as well as the more complex jokes and backhanded one-liners. My wife and I watched it religiously and the episode where she finally came out as gay was HYSTERICAL! To quote my brothers from across the pond it was nothing short of Bloody Brilliant!

HOWEVER… once she came out to the world, the show took a DRASTIC change and it lost itself, its core, it's brilliance and humor. The show then became a gay propaganda machine and every aspect of the show referenced gayness as much as possible and it killed the show. The thing is that EVERYONE already KNEW Ellen was gay and it didn't matter because no one had an issue with it, so her work and material was embraced and appreciated for what it was without any judgement or prejudice and if you were a fan of her and were tuned into everything that was going on with her then, you'd know that making that change caused a drastic drop in ratings and as with EVERY SHOW EVER FEATURED ON TV, once your ratings dip below a certain level, it goes on the chopping block and committees vote as to which ones survive and which ones get cancelled, and her show was just "one of" the shows ABC cancelled that season, for the same reasons. It's unfair for her to say her sitcom was cancelled due to her coming out as gay, because every last person/fan who watched and loved that show can attest to the fact it jumped the shark in the worst way imaginable and transformed from being brilliant to unwatchable and that responsibility falls on just one person's shoulders.

A Several years after that NBC aired a new show about a man and a woman who were best friends and had a complicated relationship, BUT… They cleverly hid the fact the lead actor was a gay man for several episodes, but one of the costars was flamboyantly over the top gay, but did it ever so brilliantly that he didn't turn anyone off to him or the show and actually drew in hordes of fans by the millions! That show was Will & Grace and it too was brilliant but the writers and producers portrayed the characters as regular people who just happened to be gay. They embellished and exaggerated many things but the show never lost what made it so good which was the writing. That show enjoyed an healthy run until the creators decided they wanted to stop. Fast forward a decade and now it's back on TV with the original cast, less Rosario (who was amazing) and writers, but while it's still funny, it has now become a tad too agendaist at times and I hope they realize it and go back to just writing FUNNY material instead of Funny gay material.

Since Will & Grace first aired, many dozens of top level positions at networks and production companies have been filled by gay people and everywhere you look there is a gay undertone to literally everything and it's completely unnecessary. Writers submit brilliant works that are just good solid writing and although execs realize they are perfect as they are, they push to have the writers insert gay characters whenever and wherever possible and you'd be hard pressed to watch anything that doesn't have gay references in it.

I am not homophobic or racist but just as I don't go around making out with my wife in public, proclaiming LOOK AT ME WORLD, I AM STRAIGHT AND MY WIFE IS HOT!, I don't think others should walk around doing the same for themselves, shoving what they and their preferences are, down the throats of the rest of the world. Just live a clean life, be kind and courteous to one another and don't be a prick for the sake of being so.

The very idea that Lewis said ANYTHING wrong is what's wrong here. NEWS FLASH… A Princess CAN ONLY BE A FEMALE, and a Prince CAN ONLY BE A MALE. And no matter how many wack jobs whine about it not being fair, it just is and that's fact, not opinion, and there is ZERO gray area in that. To entertain any other possibility means you're appeasing a person or group for the mere fact THEY aren't happy with and cannot accept reality, I hate to break it to you, but the sooner you realize that life is not a an exercise in congeniality, and that not everyone gets along with everyone and everything. That however doesn't deem people as intolerant or bigots, but that's exactly what the LGBTQ argues and that's not right. The mere fact they invented and added "Q" is enough to question their organization as a whole. What next? "S" for Superhero fetishists? or "F" for facebook aficionados? Where does it end?

Isn't much of your post contrary to your own statement "be kind and courteous to one another". It seems that there is a great lack of tolerance for those who live a different lifestyle. How can you be so sure that your view of what is right applies to every one?

Not at all. Ur just falling into that same mantra of “anything someone says can and will usually offend or put someone off to it/ you” way of thinking. The sooner people realize this IS the way it is, that there’s always an opportunity to construe things to take offense if one really wants to, the sooner they may realize they’re the ones perpetuating hate and disdain.

What’s right is to man up (regardless of gender) and get over yourselves.

In what way does that address my question? It seems a lot of double-talk to me.

If someone says something offensive about something or someone, it is those who find it offensive who are "perpetrating hate and disdain"? That sounds like donnie trump reasoning to me, "Its not what I said, it is your not agreeing with my vision that is offensive and wrong."

No. The simple fact is that many times things said in the most innocent and simplistic of ways can and will be interpreted and construed to suit a position of taking offense to it. Just like kids who end up in trouble... if you go looking for trouble, you will.

Not normal for who? Try telling the fa'afafine’s of Samoa that it’s not normal for boys to wear dresses. Who are we to dictate what is or isn’t normal? For certain members of the community, those actions are normal. For certain members of the LGBTQ community, that is normal, so for a high profile celebrity to come out and say it isn’t, can be insulting.

It’s not hard to be a little aware of your actions before posting something potentially harmful. I can’t give a good example to compare for you, because I don’t know your background. Maybe I could say it’d be like someone saying it’s not normal to take African American slave music, and convert it into funky electric music.

I have a friend who is Samoan, and I have been out with him in his national dress, but if you were to suggest to him it resembled a 'princess dress' you would need bulk discount rates at the dentist. Likewise for my Scottish friends who go out in the traditional dress. That is not the issue and if you have to make it the issue you are lost and argument is futile.

National costume or indeed everyones costume from more than just a few hundred years ago did not include toruses, but I do not recall any that were pink fluffed chiffon.

BTW as an aside, I have had gay and lesbian friends for many. many years, even during the period when it was not legal. That is not an issue to me. This does not come into that realm, it is stupidity and troublemaking for the sake of it.

Freedom of speech though I do feel very strongly about, even if I do not agree with what they say. And that goes both ways, not just the way I want it to

If I did what Hamilton did in my job I would be sacked. Will Mercedes sack Hamilton? Probably not.

He was not at his job, he was in private life.

No, his job got him the high exposure, and he uses that high level of exposure to express himself to the world. It was not the paparazzi, it was not a relative, it was Lewis Hamilton himself who posted this. So there is a connection between Hamilton, his employer (Mercedes) and his MBE.

All of what the MBE represents Hamilton destroyed in that post, and he should be stripped of that title. And yes, if I had made such a comment I would expect to be fired.

John Wayne is dead, the world is changing. This is no longer the white anglo-saxon protestant's domain, other groups are now inclusive to our communities.

If I did what Hamilton did in my job I would be sacked. Will Mercedes sack Hamilton? Probably not.

He was not at his job, he was in private life.

No, his job got him the high exposure, and he uses that high level of exposure to express himself to the world. It was not the paparazzi, it was not a relative, it was Lewis Hamilton himself who posted this. So there is a connection between Hamilton, his employer (Mercedes) and his MBE.

All of what the MBE represents Hamilton destroyed in that post, and he should be stripped of that title. And yes, if I had made such a comment I would expect to be fired.

John Wayne is dead, the world is changing. This is no longer the white anglo-saxon protestant's domain, other groups are now inclusive to our communities.

Then I repeat my earlier post, Well done him for dumping it. I just hope many many more come to the same decision.

Btw, yes the world is changing, but from your lofty perch of standing on the shoulders of those gone, don't wet on them while you enjoy the view. They did slightly more than click like or dislike on someone's post.

Plainly stated, people need to STFU with their nonsense already. He didn’t say anything wrong and companies and sponsors need to sack up and let the MORONICALLY IDIOTIC pink militia whine all they want.

He didn’t say anything NO ONE HASN’T ever said.

Agreed, but this is not necessarily right, is it? Otherwise we'd be using, as an example, the N-word, etc.

It seems we are getting into a nanny-state status, where everyone is constantly being offended by everything. I can only think that the wide access to the internet media is partly to blame, as it coincides. But it does make you feel like you need to check with a lawyer before you open your mouth sometimes. It is so bad that careers have been wiped out because someone has an opinion. And true, some opinions should be kept private, but here we are.

However, none of this matters. In the end of the day, if someone wants to take offence, they will, no matter what you say. My gay friends or black/Asian friends have no problem to make racist or gay jokes themselves. And take them equally, which is only fair. Jokes on stereotypes. And there's nothing wrong with that. They are open minded people that know that we are friends because of their personality, not colour or sexual preference. I am glad to have people like that as friends; also that I grew up at a time that you could say stuff without being crucified as a hater.

The world is changing though and being a little bit more careful is necessary. And it is not that bad after all. Both sides (if you want to say sides) need to open their minds.

N-Word and what Hamilton said are complete polar opposites. What Hamilton said was sensible, the N-Word is not. He didn't say anything derogatory or negative in any capacity which is why whomever took offense to it needs to stop it already and those whom appease them as well.

The whole allowing people to do whatever they want so they feel their "preferences" are being catered to and considered needs to stop at some point. I mean at what point does common sense come into play? Soon sociopaths will demand their needs and desires need to be met as well and some maniacal coddler is going to agree and make it so they too feel special. I mean some nut job in Canada already declared sex acts with animals legal so I guess all this would fall right in line with all that.